


Bloody goodbye

by Callmepapi



Series: *-Jaskier-whump-week-* [1]
Category: The Witcher (TV), Wiedźmin | The Witcher (Video Game)
Genre: Blood, Blood and Injury, Hurt Jaskier | Dandelion, Jaskier | Dandelion Whump, M/M, Vampires, jaskierwhumpweek
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-25
Updated: 2020-07-25
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:27:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25511314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Callmepapi/pseuds/Callmepapi
Summary: Part 1 of the Jaskier whump week - goodbyes.It was never supposed to end like this. This was supposed to be an easy contract, something where jaskier could tag along and take notes from where he was watching, nothing too dangerous. He brought Jaskier because it wasn’t too dangerous.
Relationships: Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia/Jaskier | Dandelion
Series: *-Jaskier-whump-week-* [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1848163
Comments: 4
Kudos: 147
Collections: Jaskier Whump Week





	Bloody goodbye

**Author's Note:**

> I’m not that good at whump, I mainly write smut, but that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy it. 
> 
> Any advice on writing better whump would be much appreciated. I’m sensitive, go easy lol.

It was never supposed to end like this. This was supposed to be an easy contract, something where jaskier could tag along and take notes from where he was watching, nothing too dangerous. He brought Jaskier because it wasn’t too  _ dangerous _ .

The alderman had told them it was a bunch of wild dogs, which was a lie. Geralt wasn't sure if he hadn't actually  _ known _ what it was or if it was all part of some elaborate plan to kill him. Either way, Geralt survived, and he was sure as hell Jaskier would survive this too, even if he was losing way too much blood every second they wasted.

The vampire had sprung down from the trees, managing to catch them off guard and In blind panic Geralt had blasted a quick Aard at Jaskier to get him out of the way. He didn’t see where Jaskier had ended up - his main priority had been killing the vampire attacking him and he was too distracted to hear the grunt of pain when Jaskier fell.

He managed to trick it, throwing one way then quickly cutting its head off when it was distracted. Of course, his short victory came to a stop when a sharp cry of ‘ _ Geralt! _ ’ Sounded behind him, right where Jaskier had fallen. He turned, quickly, and saw that there was not only one, but two vampires crouched over jaskier’s splayed form. The bard was gritting his teeth, eyebrows furrowed. No doubt in pain from where one of the vampires was gripping his wrists behind his back and where the other had their claws in his neck; not breaking the skin, but enough to hurt.

“Let him  _ go _ !” Said Geralt. The vampires laughed. The one holding the bard’s neck shook him and jaskier grit his teeth. It reminded Geralt that Jaskier was strong in his own right when it came to emotions, he was a  _ bard _ after all, but not strong enough to out-strengthen vampires. From where Geralt stood he could smell the salt of the bard’s unshed tears and the thick stench of fear emanating from him. The vampires could likely smell it too, something that Jaskier’s bardic skills sadly had no control over.

“ _ Why should we!” _ They hissed, “ _ You killed one of us, we kill one of yours! _ ”

Geralt grunted, tightening his grip on his silver sword until his skin squeaked against the leather hilt. He took a step forward and the vampires hissed, shuffling back and pulling Jaskier with them. He cried out when they moved and Geralt sussed that he must have some kind of ankle injury.

One of the vampires moved closer to jaskier’s neck, licking a trail up the tendon, “ _ They always taste better afraid…” _ It whispered, nipping the lobe of Jaskier's ear. Jaskier whimpered, struggling in vain to get away from the vampires but only succeeding in aggravating his ankle injury, making him whine.

“Stop! _ ” _ Geralt shouted, “let him go… and I’ll let you leave.” The vampires hissed. They glanced at each other before looking back at Geralt, tightening their grip on Jaskier, who had been sobbing quietly underneath them.

“ _ Too late, witcher!” _ Geralt lunged for them but was stopped by one of the vampires jumping at him, the other sinking their fangs into the pale flesh of jaskier’s neck. The bard’s mouth was locked open in a silent shout and his big, wide eyes were focused on Geralt, his eyebrows furrowed in pain as he stared at the Witcher. His breaths became short gasping sobs as the vampire took it's fill.

“ _ No! _ ” Geralt cried. He blasted the vampire with Igni before moving in to stab it through the heart, then, with a quick slice of his blade, he cut it's head clean off. Turning, he saw the other vampire was still guzzling the bard’s blood. Eyelids fluttering, Jaskier’s face was devoid of colour. Geralt moved, grabbing the vampire by the hair and pulling him back.

“Leave off!” He shouted, the vampire smiled, showing off it's bloodied fangs.  _ Jaskier’s blood _ . Dripping down it's chin.

“ _ How could I, he’s delicious…”  _ Geralt brought his sword and stabbed it through the vampire's neck, pinning it to the ground. It flailed and fought but quickly died out, grinning with empty eyes.

“Jaskier!” Geralt crouched down by the bard, scooping his head into his lap. He was rapidly losing blood, pouring out of him through his neck. Jaskier looked at him through half-lidded eyes, opening his mouth to speak but hardly enough words were getting out.

“…Geralt,” He whimpered. His voice was so small, Geralt thought. Jaskier brought a weak hand up towards Geralt which he held like a lifeline. The bard’s breath was stuttered and quick, Geralt wasn’t sure if it was from the pain or the blood loss, but either way he knew he had to move quickly.

He ripped a strip off jaskier’s chemise - his doublet being left behind on roach - and wrapped it around the bard’s neck. He did this a few times until he was satisfied with the thick covering. Gently he stood up, one arm under jaskier’s shoulders and the other under his knees, head limp against Geralt, and made for roach, running as fast as he could without jostling the bard too much. 

Jaskier moaned in his arms and when Geralt looked down, he could see a small trail of blood dribbling from the bard’s blue lips, reminding him of the incident with the djinn. Geralt cared for Jaskier back then almost as much as he does now; it wasn’t long after that incident that he realised he truly loved the bard, and he would do anything in his power to make sure the bard never got hurt again. He had failed, not only Jaskier, but himself.

“Ngh… G- Geralt,” his hand weakly batted against Geralt’s chest, Geralt didn’t look, couldn’t, he just kept running, “Ger… please. I- I need to… to tell you…” the bard tried, his breath was coming out in quick gasps, and Geralt knew that wasn’t right, at least not for a human.

Geralt shook his head, tightening his grip and running faster, “No, Jaskier. Save your breath, you can tell me when you’re healed.” The bard shook his head, and Geralt could smell the saltiness of tears, could see the pale trails down Jaskier's dirtied face as the bard wept.

Jaskier Sniffled then looked up at Geralt as much as his injured neck would allow, “…L- love you, Ger…,” The bard’s voice was coarse, as if he was dehydrated, rather than being drained of his blood, “Love you… for- forever,”. Geralt was momentarily stunned,he looked down at him, eyes open in shock at the confession, “…goodbye, Ger….” Jaskier’s eyes slipped shut as his hand dropped loosely to sit on his stomach and his head rolled back, showing off the bloodied bandage on his neck, saturated in thick, red blood. All the breath suddenly left Geralt’s body - not from running, the mutations sorted them out for that; limitless stamina. Something that Jaskier would love to hear more about, if he survived - as the limp bard rolled uselessly in his arms.

“No, fuck. No, no, no!  _ Jaskier _ !” He shouted, but it was useless, as the bard was clearly gone; his lips an ugly shade of blue and his skin pale and cold to the touch. But Geralt could still hear him, a faint,  _ very faint, _ heartbeat, too quiet to be heard by the human ear. Like the ticking of a bomb, and when it went off, Geralt’s world would implode.

He could see Roach through the trees now and that realisation caused him to start running. Roach whinnied when she saw them, moving to nuzzle at Jaskier’s hair as he laid the bard on the floor, back resting against Roach's front leg. They wouldn’t have time to return to the village, too far away and Geralt knew that Jaskier wouldn’t make it. He would have to heal the bard here, in the forest, with their own small supply of potions.

Geralt frantically moved to the saddle bags, rummaging for the vile of diluted swallow potion; they had found long ago, when Jaskier had somehow stumbled into a bear trap as they were walking through a forest - a painful situation if you’d ask him, no one likes having their skin shredded and rusty metal scraping against the bone. He had to survive off piggy-backs from Geralt for two weeks until they found a village - that Jaskier was able to drink a swallow potion as long as it was heavily diluted with water. Of course it still had undesired effects - he would usually faint after, or receive a harsh bout of nausea, but it always worked better than a simple human-made healing potion. 

Roach whinnied again, “I know, girl. He’ll be fine,” Geralt soothed her. He bent down and tilted the bard’s head back, gently pouring the potion into his mouth and rubbing his fingers against his throat to help him swallow. Jaskier weakly spluttered, though his eyes remained shut, as Geralt managed to empty the potion into him. Once the vial was empty he carefully moved Jaskier to lean against a thick tree, then he draped one of the blankets over him that they kept on roach.

“Mmph,” Jaskier moaned, quietly, as if he was asleep. Geralt could pretend he was; his now-soft breaths, steady heartbeat and the peaceful expression on his face. There was nothing left for Geralt to do, the wounds were bandaged, and he had given Jaskier something to help him heal. Jaskier’s ankle was simply sprained so Geralt had bandaged that too. He sat beside him, cradling the body in his arms and let Jaskier rest.

Geralt, of course, didn’t sleep. He kept an eye on the forest around them and trained his ears to hear the heartbeat of his fallen partner. It was calm now, slightly faster than normal, but much calmer than earlier, which was a relief in Geralt’s eyes.

~*~

As if on cue, as soon as the first rays of the morning sun flickered through the tree line, and when the notes of the early birds started, Jaskier climbed back to consciousness. Eyelashes fluttering as he adjusted to the light. He could feel breath on the back of his head and looked up from his crouched position to see Geralt, eyes closed in what looked to be meditation.

There was a painful throbbing in his neck and suddenly the memories of the past day’s events caught up with him - the vampires, the blood. He tried blocking out the pain, looking around the clearing, but moving his neck only made it worse. The rising sun reminded Jaskier that Geralt should be waking up about now, so he turned back to the Witcher and nudged him.

“Ger-,” he started, cut off as he choked on his dry throat, “…Geralt.” Bringing up a weak hand he shook Geralt’s shoulders and the man opened his eyes. He took a moment to look at the clearing before setting his eyes on jaskier’s drained form and breathed a relieved sigh, hugging Jaskier closer. For a moment Jaskier was stunned, too shocked to do or say anything. Geralt was hugging him,  _ his _ Geralt.  _ Hugging _ him. Then he was hit with the realisation that Geralt was probably sure that he wouldn’t make it. Jaskier was too. In fact, he was so certain he was going to die that had told Geralt that he-

Oh.  _ Oh no _ .

He told Geralt he loves him. Surely- surely Geralt would take it as a platonic love, just friendship. Nothing more. Nothing like having a crush on your very best friend ever since they met. Nothing that could potentially ruin their friendship forevermore.

He was pulled away from his thoughts when Geralt moved away from the hug, pulling Jaskier back so he could actually see him.

“Jaskier…” the bard looked up to the golden eyes. He didn’t say anything, if he did Geralt would probably  _ not  _ continue his sentence.

“You’re okay. You’re better.” Geralt whispered. He was talking to Jaskier, but the bard was certain this was more for Geralt than him. Something that he had to repeat to himself until he was sure it was true, “God I thought you’d die. I thought- I thought I wouldn’t be able to tell you-”. Jaskier felt the breath leave his body. Was Geralt implying that he loved him? Was that what he was going to say? Jaskier thought for a minute, or maybe a second, then decided that now would be better than ever. He reached up to cup Geralt’s face, tugging him down into a soft kiss. If Jaskier was reading this situation wrong, he could blame it on the blood loss. Yes. But then he felt Geralt’s tongue in his mouth, and surely, if Geralt wasn’t into this, then his tongue would not be where it is now.

He pulled back, looking into Geralt's golden eyes. The corners of his mouth quirked up and Jaskier thought he could have cried at that moment, a lump forming in the back of his throat that he couldn’t seem to swallow. “I’m here, love. I’m okay, you saved me,” He said. Geralt pulled him closer, kissing his forehead as he hugged him. Hoping to never have to let go again.

“You love me?” Geralt whispered into the brunet’s soft hair. Jaskier smiled, tucked into Geralt's chest. He nodded, as much as his position would allow.

“I love you,” He said, not bothering to stop the tears from falling down his face.

“I love you too.”


End file.
